ASU women’s basketball looking good in unproven Pac-12

The good news locally is that No. 25 Arizona State is the revelation of Pac-12 women’s basketball so far.

The Pac-12 as a whole, though, still has somewhat of an unproven feel with the full start of conference play beginning Friday. Wins such as No. 4 Stanford over No. 5 Tennessee, ASU over No. 10 North Carolina and unranked Washington State over No. 18 Nebraska and the scare Oregon State threw into No. 2 Notre Dame before losing 70-58 Sunday make statement. But a combined 8-23 record vs. Sagarin top-50 teams sends the opposite message.

In Sagarin conference computer ratings, the Pac-12 is fifth, well behind the Big 12, Atlantic Coast and Southeastern and, by a smaller margin, the Big Ten. Bridging those gaps will be hard although ASU gets one final shot at non-conference recognition at home Monday night against No. 20 Syracuse. Also Monday night, USC and UCLA will get a jump on the rest of the conference with the first of their rivalry meetings.

“I’m really proud of our conference,” ASU coach Charli Turner Thorne said. “I think for the most part we’ve been out-playing (good) people. Washington State always does. That’s why they’re so scary. They’re not afraid of anything. They’ve seen it all by the time they get to conference. That’ll be a tough opener for us.”

The Sun Devils were 8-4 in non-conference last season but lost both games on a Pac-12 opening road trip to Washington and never recovered, finishing 13-18 and out of the postseason for the first time in 14 years. Now they are 10-1, on the third longest win streak (nine) in school history and back in the Associated Press Top 25 for the first time in four years. This from a team that Pac-12 coaches picked to finish 10th.

“We’ve had a much tougher preseason and more success,” Turner Thorne said. “I think we are ready (for conference). Our team is still pretty young. I”m trying to get this team to understand those 40-point wins or even 20-point wins are pretty much gone. But we’ve won in a lot of different ways, and I don’t think there is anything we haven’t seen.

“I know our team defense needs to get better, but there’s not a whole lot of resistance from this team. They want it.”

Stanford (11-1) has lost only to No. 1 Connecticut and shows no signs of slipping from the Pac-12 top perch it’s occupied for the past 13 seasons. Senior forward Chiney Ogwumike, already four-time Pac-12 Player of the Week, is averaging 25.8 points and 11.3 rebounds.

No. 23 California (8-3) shared the 2013 title and made its NCAA Final Four debut but has been slower starting this season in part due to the absence of senior forward Gennifer Brandon for personal reasons.

“I am hopeful basketball is going to be part of the equation (for Brandon) sooner than later,” Cal coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “At the heart of it is her well being.”

No. 12 Colorado (10-1) has only lost to No. 7 Louisville, another 2013 Final Four team. Junior Lexy Kresl of Paradise Valley is starting at point guard, replacing Chucky Jeffery.

Freshman Sydney Wiese of Phoenix is among the Pac-12 3-point leaders for Oregon State (8-4), which led 33-31 at halftime over Notre Dame in Corvallis.

Oregon, led by freshman Chrishae Rowe, is off to an encouraging 9-2 start and could finally have the personnel to fuel former Phoenix Mercury coach Paul Westhead’s fast-paced offense. The Ducks are averaging a nation high 106.2 points, but their Sagarin strength of schedule is a Pac-12 low No. 199.

UCLA, by contrast, has played the nation’s toughest schedule so far and paid the price with a 6-6 record.

Arizona, in its eighth season under coach Niya Butts, lost seven of its first eight games including the first two in overtime before recovering to win three straight for a 4-7 non-conference record. Candice Warthen and Kama Griffits are the Wildcats’ scoring leaders.

Reach Metcalfe at 602-444-8053 or jeff.metcalfe@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him at twitter.com/jeffmetcalfe.

Posting a comment to our website allows you to join in on the conversation. Share your story and unique perspective with members of the azcentral.com community.

Comments posted via facebook:

► Join the Discussion

Join the conversation! To comment on azcentral.com, you must be logged into an active personal account on Facebook. You are responsible for your comments and abuse of this privilege will not be tolerated. We reserve the right, without warning or notification, to remove comments and block users judged to violate our Terms of Service and Rules of Engagement. Facebook comments FAQ

Join thousands of azcentral.com fans on Facebook and get the day's most popular and talked-about Valley news, sports, entertainment and more - right in your newsfeed. You'll see what others are saying about the hot topics of the day.